Honda Civic Review

Interior layout

The interior layout, fit and finish

Honda Civic driving position

The Civic has a fairly low driving position but the gearlever is set relatively high up, so you don't need to reach down to grab it. The seats are comfortable, too, providing decent side and thigh support, and electrically adjustable lumbar support is standard on SR trim and above. That said, adjusting the angle of the backrest is a bit fiddly because you have to pull a lever and shift your weight back and forth.

The steering wheel also has plenty of adjustment, while the pedals line up nicely with the driver's seat meaning you don't need to sit in a crooked postion. Thankfully, the air-con controls are also easy to reach and intuitive to use.

Honda Civic visibility

The Civic's coupé-like rear styling doesn’t exactly aid over-the-shoulder visibility, although you do get a reversing camera as standard on SR trim (and above) to help mitigate this. Meanwhile, front and rear parking sensors are standard on all but entry-level S trim.

Seeing out at junctions and roundabouts isn't an issue, despite the fact you sit quite low in the car. Meanwhile, powerful LED headlights are optional on our favourite SR trim and standard on Sport and above to make it easier to see in the dark.

Honda Civic infotainment

We won't beat around the bush: the Honda Civic has one of the worst infotainment systems of any modern family hatch. The 7.0in touchscreen (standard on all but entry-level S and SE trims) is disappointingly low in resolution, and the fact it's angled upwards means it reflects the sky.

Worse still, the menus are hopelessy complicated, the screen is often sluggish to respond to presses and even tweaking the volume is frustratingly fiddly. Mercifully, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone mirroring are standard on SR trim and above, so you can effectively bypass Honda's own operating system and use the touchscreen to control your phone instead.

Entry-level S models don't get a radio at all, and while stepping up to SE gets you a AM/FM/DAB radio, the system is very basic. SE models and up come with an adequate eight-speaker sound system, while upgrading to EX trim gets you a punchier 11-speaker stereo.

Honda Civic build quality

While the Civic’s interior quality isn’t up to quite the same standard as, say, a Volkswagen Golf or an Audi A3, it is a step up from what we’ve seen before from the Japanese manufacturer.

There aren’t as many soft-touch plastics as you'll find in many European rivals, but the Civic's dashboard feels really well screwed together and the rotary controls for the climate control are pleasingly weighty and click reassuringly when you twist them. Put simply, you won't feel short-changed.